Creating a Family Culture in the Workplace
How do you create a family culture in the workplace? When a business seeks to strengthen their organization and encourage high-performance, it starts with great employees. To flourish, your staff needs an environment that encourages their input, has common values and goals, and has their best interests in mind. Building a family atmosphere has benefits that will improve your organization on all levels.
Employees often want more than a paycheck when they come to work. From personal success to the success of the overall company, the ideas of teamwork and unity are central to many employees. A family-like workplace is built on respect, common goals and communication. When these things are present they are built on interactions between individuals. Here are a few of the advantages of a family-like environment:- Teams share decision-making duties
- There is a firm identity and a feeling of camaraderie
- Communication between supervisors and other staff involves mutual respect and listening
- Employees get to know one another
- Employees have opportunities to provide input and feedback
Employees tend to stay at workplaces that nurture them and that they have formed an attachment with. Many companies will see employees remain there for decades and even until retirement. Their job becomes an important aspect of their life. People who feel cared for and valued extend that to those in their circles. That’s what creates the family atmosphere. And when you treat people like they matter, they feel like a family. Could it work everywhere? Absolutely.
Now it’s not just the employees that make up this family culture it is also it’s customers. By being open, direct and honest with your customers you build the same sense of authenticity and transparency as you would in your communications with your family members. This type of interaction builds loyalty and shows your customers that you appreciate them.
Getting to know your customers by name, know their likes and dislikes, the goings on in their lives, just seeing how their day is on weekly basis makes them feel more valued. Speaking from the business side that is my favorite thing to do getting to know all our customers. Sharing in the new family members you add to your family, birthdays, new jobs, your everyday adventures etc…
So, if you are ever in the neighborhood, come on by and say hi! We would love to meet you and possibly add you to our Pinnacle Family.
Trish Hodson